Faculty
Michelle Pearce, Ph.D.
Program Director, the Graduate School
Dr. Michelle Pearce, PhD is a professor in the Graduate School at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and holds an adjunct faculty position at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Pearce received a Doctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology from Yale University and completed a medical psychology internship and two post-doctoral fellowships at Duke University Medical Center. She is a clinical psychologist, licensed to practice in Maryland. Her program of research examines the role of religion/spirituality in mental and physical health. Her current research focuses on the integration of spirituality into psychotherapy for the treatment of depression, PTSD, and moral injury. Dr. Pearce has a passion for writing. Dr. Pearce has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. She has also published a book for mental health professionals called “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Christians with Depression: A Tool-Based Primer” and a book for a general audience called “Night Bloomers: 12 Principles for Thriving in Adversity.” In addition to directing the Science Communication Program, she will be teaching the Writing for the Public course.
Isabell May, Ph.D.
Lecturer, the Graduate School
Dr. May earned her doctorate in American Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park. A native of Germany, Dr. May came to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship in 1999 and has resided in Maryland, with a two-year interruption in Lueneburg, Germany, ever since. Before her tenure at UMB, Dr. May oversaw the Writing Center at the University of Baltimore, founded the Writing Center for Academic English at Leuphana University in Luenburg, Germany, and directed the Center for Academic Success at the Universities at Shady Grove. At UMB, she co-teaches the introductory course on library research and scholarly writing for the MHS program at UMB’s Graduate school as well as the first two courses in the Science Communication Certificate Program, while also directing UMB’s Writing Center. Her research interests are the development of graduate communication skills, science communication, and the revision process in graduate- and professional-level writing. If Dr. May is not busy writing her blog, researching, or working with writers, she can be found in a Pilates or Cardio class in URecFit or at an Orioles game. Dr. May will be teaching the Science Writing Principles and Writing for Scholarly Journals courses.
Christy Chang, Ph.D.
Lecturer, the Graduate School
Dr. Yen Pei Christy Chang is an associate professor in Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). She has secondary appointments in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as well as the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. Her research focuses on the genetic and the molecular bases of diseases and her research contributed to our understanding of how our genes influences our risk to develop hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and other complex diseases. Besides her research, Dr. Chang is passionate about graduate school education and career development of junior faculty. She teaches various topics related to genetics to medical and graduate students and recently developed and taught an online course on grant writing. Dr. Chang has won several teaching awards and was the Department of Epidemiology’s faculty mentor of the year in 2017. In addition, through the NIH sponsored National Research Mentoring Network. Dr. Chang serves as a grant writing coach to assist underrepresented junior faculty nationally. Dr. Chang will be teaching the Writing Proposals and Grants course.
